The present invention is directed to a watch device, and more particularly to a watch device having a touch-based bezel user interface for providing input of information to the watch device.
Typically, the user interfaces employed by digital watch devices consist of a segmented display disposed in the front face of the watch housing and several mechanical buttons arranged in the sides of the housing adjacent to the display. This arrangement severely limits the functionality and/or ease of use of the user interfaces of such watches since the conventional design philosophy has been either to increase the number of buttons arranged around the display, or alternately, use a lesser number of buttons but employ complex display menus for the display of information. Watches having housings which include large number of buttons can intimidate users, while watches which use a large number of display menus can be confusing to use. For smart watches such as personal training devices and personal navigational watches, which may be connected and can retrieve and display data quickly and efficiently, the present arrangement is especially limiting. Watch interfaces are further limited because it is usually desirable that they be small, sleek and stylish. These requirements physically limit the number of buttons that can be placed on the housing.